No Sanitary Ware Factory In Kazakhstan, Other Building Materials Account For Only 50% Of Market Demand

Original Kitchen And Bathroom Industry Mainstream Media Kitchen And Bathroom Information

According to inbusiness.kz, Kazakhstan’s domestic production of building materials is 586 billion tenge (8.88 billion RMB). Its imports amounted to 348 billion tenge (5.27 billion yuan).

Almaty, Kazakhstan

The current market demand for basic construction materials in the country is 934 billion tenge (14.16 billion yuan). Local companies produce 586 billion tenge (8.88 billion yuan). Its imports amount to 348 billion tenge (5.27 billion CNY), the share of imports is 37%.

To meet the market demand, this year Kazakhstan plans to launch eight import substitution projects. They plan to produce five categories of building materials, including glass, polyethylene pipes, dry mixes, fittings, tiles, etc. The production is expected to reach 103 billion tenge. It is planned to produce building materials such as insulation materials, ceramic refractory bricks, sanitary ware, etc. The output is expected to be 61 billion tenge.

The local building materials categories are mainly concentrated in 24 categories such as reinforced concrete products, dry mixes, waterproofing, wallpaper, sanitary ware, wall blocks, insulated bricks, profiled panels, plastic pipes, etc. The existing local production capacity has covered 10 categories of products such as reinforced concrete products, varnish coating, ceramic bricks, silicate bricks, honeycomb concrete blocks, glass, etc.

For insulation materials, profiled panels, plastic pipes and other 11 categories, the local enterprise capacity can only provide a 50% supply. For three categories such as waterproofing, wallpaper, sanitary ware, local production capacity is 0. Local sanitary ware supply is mainly based on imports, and according to the data obtained from Kitchen & Bathroom Information, the imported sanitary ware (6910) in Kazakhstan from 2016 to 2020 are US$20,979 thousand, US$24,264 thousand, US$25,738 thousand, US$26,669 thousand, and US$29,683 thousand, respectively. China is the largest source of imports of sanitary ware in Kazakhstan. In 2018-2020, China’s exports of sanitary ceramics (6910) to Kazakhstan amounted to 2419 thousand dollars, 2593 thousand dollars, 3342 thousand dollars, respectively.

From January to June this year, China 6910 sanitary ceramics exports to Kazakhstan was 2.94 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 14%, 2020 compared to 2019, a decrease of 47%. Among them, Xinjiang region is the largest share of exports in three six-month period, which is followed by Guangdong, Shandong and Zhejiang.

Local imports of high-end brands mainly in the European region brands

In order to increase local sanitary ware production capacity, the country also plans to coordinate with multinational companies to build factories in the region. According to the Kazakh media, the capital will invest in the construction of a number of building materials plants in Kazakhstan’s capital, including a ceramic tile factory, a sanitary ware factory and other projects. Among them, the ceramic tile plant is planned to have a capacity of 120 million ceramic tiles per year, which can produce ordinary ceramic tiles and decorative ceramic tiles. The other project is a project to produce upholstered furniture and cabinets and doors. The planned annual production capacity is about 24,000 sets of upholstered furniture and cabinets, and 2,000 sets of interior doors per month.

It is worth noting that part of the local industry has become an oligopolistic market with a higher dependence on imports (the share of imports reaches 65%). In June this year, in order to curb the rise of local prices, the Kazakh government signed an anti-monopoly compliance agreement with with 10 building materials producers. They regulated building materials such as bricks and pipes in some areas, requiring increases of no more than 10%.